Specialized launch new Venge bike and association with McLaren

Specialized will launch its new aero road bike ahead of this weekend’s Milan-San Remo, built with assistance from Formula One team, McLaren.

British sprinter Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad) will ride the new Venge bike, shown in the picture below, as he attempts to win the Italian classic for the second time.

More details of the frame and its aerodynamic properties will be released at the launch in Italy on Friday, although Cycling Weekly has been told that the the surface of the carbon has been treated to help reduce drag.

There will be two versions of the Venge, an S-Works model and a McLaren one.

The new bike, called Venge, has been in development for years, and was spotted in its completed form last year at Specialized HQ in Morgan Hills. However, the California-based company has delayed its launch for years due to the problems it faced with its Shiv time trial bike.

That bike fell foul of UCI regulations, costing Specialized dearly after years of R&D and creation of the moulds the frame is built in.

Images taken from a Specialized advert appearing in the May issue of Cycle Sport. Out now priced £4.25

Marketing talk! Look at the figures: they claim the frame weighs 920 gram. True it is a light frame but check Canyon Ultimate CF SLX. It is 910 gram, and I bought one for 1200 euro last September during Canyon’s end of summer promotional sale (it is now a little more expensive but far far less than the McLaren-S-Works).

gringo

Hey ed.

Thanks for censoring my comment.
It was a legitimate comparison between the previously released Scott F01.

Weak sauce.

Pro Bikes

Freak’in gorgeous bike in every aspect, can’t wait to get one!

old bill

Price Check?

Frosty

I’ll start by saying I’m not a lover or a hater of Specialized, but this visually is a nice piece of bike!

Al – bang on.

Yes Tim – of course the rider provides biggest drag – but I don’t believe that is something that a bike manufacturer can control is it? They are purely trying to create the fastest bike. Riders can work on their own ‘aerodynamics’ with good positioning and laying off the cakes.
When someone of Cav’s pedigree is pushing the limits of their own performance – including dialing in the most efficient riding position on the bike – then the next thing to improve is their equipment!
And I’m pretty sure they won’t be running a low end wheelset on it – pretty sure the hubs will roll pretty nice.
And finally – the side on image is a marketing tease. I believe the real bike is actually a 3 dimensional object, and we’ll probably get to see a front on shot at some stage – after the actual launch! Or maybe it’s that slim that we wouldn’t be able to see it from the front!

Until we have some conclusive performance data, a few reviews and test rides, why don’t we all just forget technical crap and appreciate what is a pretty damn nice looking bike…

Tim

The biggest area of drag is the rider, not the bike. Of course, the ads and the marketing won’t tell you this. Tinkering with the bike is minor in comparison to the person. Improvement in hub bearings are the next improvement, and so on….

Not only that, an aerodynamic bike from the side is meaningless, it’s the front frontal area that’s important. Calculate the frontal area of the rider against the frontal area of the bike – bingo! You’ll then have your answer.

Holy Transition Road Bike Bat Man. SO a company that makes things that go 200+ miles an hour takes the Transition and makes it into a road bike that goes much slower.

Al

You’re right Rob, the hype should not mention anything about Mark Cavendish being the world’s fastest sprinter, or about generally enjoying riding really fast on a machine that has taken a couple of years of development to come this far. And while they’re at it, the hype should not allude to Specialized having three TdF winning machines from 2010, or about having three pro tour teams riding their bikes in 2011. I’m with you all the way on the hype thing.

Rob

wait for the hype to come on this Bike, I have no doubt it will add speed to your sprint, take minutes off your PB and be the sole reason for any race being won on it !!!!!!!